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Food and drink
in Ayrshire.

It’s 20:57 in Ayrshire.
Ayrshire

Ice cream in Largs, sourdough in Ayr.

Eating out in Ayrshire runs from the seaside to the farm. On the front at Largs, an art deco café has been making its own ice cream since 1935, with fish and chips and views over the Clyde. In the middle of Ayr, a sourdough bakery's bread helps pay for art in the town, and just outside, a dairy farm's café puts its own milk in the coffee and the milkshakes. A gastropub in the leafy south of Ayr has dining domes in its garden. On Arran, there's dinner by the water at Pirnmill and sandwiches from Lochranza's old fire station. Book ahead for dinner, especially on Arran in summer.

The Fox & Willow→
The Coo Shed→
Narture Sourdough Bakery→
The Lighthouse, Pirnmill→
Nardini's→
Place of the day19 hours ago

The Lighthouse, Pirnmill.

A family-run restaurant at Pirnmill on Arran's west coast, with a menu that changes every two weeks and sunsets over Kilbrannan Sound.

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From our guide17 hours ago

Nardini's.

Nardini's has stood on the front at Largs since 1935, a white art deco corner with blue lettering and striped awnings, and a stop here has been part of a day at the seaside for generations of families. The ice cream is made in the house, in dozens of flavours, from double cream vanilla to Scottish tablet. The big café looks out over the Clyde and serves fish and chips, Italian pastries baked on site and old-fashioned sundaes. Ask for a window seat. It is walk-in only, and dogs are welcome at the outside tables.

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Tonight15 hours agoIsle of ArranThe Lighthouse, PirnmillRestaurantAyrshireNardini'sRestaurantAyrshireThe Coo ShedRestaurantAyrshireThe Fox & WillowRestaurantIsle of ArranThe Sandwich Station, LochranzaRestaurant

A table for tonight.

Restaurants to book ahead, and the ones you can still walk into.

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From our guide13 hours ago

Narture Sourdough Bakery.

Narture is an arts social enterprise in the middle of Ayr, started in 2020 by the artists Robert and Saskia Singer, father and daughter. Its bakery on Cathcart Street was the first of its spaces, and the money from the bread helps pay for art projects and apprenticeships in the town. Every loaf is sourdough, shaped by hand from organic flour and naturally fermented. Try the focaccia and the poppy seed rolls. Narture has since moved into other empty buildings nearby, with a café and venue on Newmarket Street, studios and a print room, so it is worth a wander.

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Newly discovered11 hours agoIsle of ArranThe Sailor's GraveAttractionIsle of ArranThe Sandwich Station, LochranzaRestaurantAyrshireBurns CottageAttractionAyrshirePoet’s PathWalkAyrshirePrestwick Golf ClubAttractionAyrshireBrig o’ DoonAttraction

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The newest places on our pages in Ayrshire.

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Did you know9 hours ago

Robert Singer and his daughter Saskia, both artists, began baking sourdough in Ayr as part of Narture, their plan to revive the old town centre through food and art.

Robert trained as a chef and baker and spent years in catering, but art had been his passion since childhood, and in his mid-forties he won a place at Glasgow School of Art, graduating in 2001. Saskia graduated in Fine Art in 2019. In 2020 they set up Narture together, a play on nurture, nature and art, and their experiments with food and art at home grew into a sourdough bakery and café, alongside pop-up exhibitions in empty shops in the town centre. The bread is naturally fermented and baked for taste, and as Robert puts it, 'Bread is the original food made that could neither be foraged nor hunted'.

See Narture Sourdough Bakery · Ayrshire
From the magazine8 hours agoThe printed copy of Issue 10Issue 10Spring / Summer 2025

In Ayr, the architect Gregorie Marshall makes salt by trickling seawater down a giant timber tower packed with bundles of blackthorn branches.

The Ayrshire coast was once dotted with salt pan houses, but the last one closed in 1959, and salt is in Gregorie's blood: his great-grandfather founded Peacock Salt in 1874. After studying the graduation towers of Germany and Poland, he built his own in 2019 with his wife Whirly, a structural engineer, and a team of local craftsmen. Seawater is pumped to the top and filters slowly down through the thorns, which speed up evaporation, then the brine is heated in the pan house next door until pyramid salt crystals form. Michelin-starred chefs now use it, and among the surprises since, Gregorie counts the day NASA gave the name Blackthorn Salt to a small spot on Mars.

Read the full story in Issue 10
Somewhere to eat6 hours ago

The Fox & Willow, Ayrshire.

A boutique gastropub in the leafy south of Ayr, with bold rooms, a long wine and cocktail list, a garden with dining domes, and dogs welcome.

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Sunday47 minutes agoIsle of ArranThe Lighthouse, PirnmillRestaurantAyrshireNardini'sRestaurantAyrshireThe Coo ShedRestaurantAyrshireThe Fox & WillowRestaurantIsle of ArranThe Sandwich Station, LochranzaRestaurant

Open on Sunday.

By their own hours, which is the only kind we trust.

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From our guideJust now

The Coo Shed.

The Coo Shed is a farm café on South Corton Farm, just outside Ayr, where the Kerr family have farmed for five generations. It opened in 2017 beside the family's plant nursery, in a timber building with picnic tables outside. Breakfasts, lunches, homemade cakes and afternoon teas are all on the menu, and the milk in your coffee comes from the farm's own cows. Do not leave without a milkshake. Across the yard, the Milk Hoose sells fresh milk and ice cream from machines that never close. It is an easy stop after a morning in Alloway.

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